"Want to read something good?. . . If you like my stuff, you'll like this."--Stephen King - WINNER OF THE ITW THRILLER AWARD - WINNER OF THE STRAND MAGAZINE AWARD FOR BEST DEBUT NOVELA riveting psychological suspense debut that weaves a mystery about a childhood game gone dangerously awry, and will keep readers guessing right up to the shocking ending

In 1986, Eddie and his friends are on the verge of adolescence, spending their days biking in search of adventure. The chalk men are their secret code, stick figures they draw for one another as hidden messages. But one morning the friends find a chalk man leading them to the woods. They follow the message, only to find the dead body of a teenage girl.

In 2016, Eddie is nursing a drinking problem and trying to forget his past, until one day he gets a letter containing a chalk man--the same one he and his friends saw when they found the body. Soon he learns that all his old friends received the same note. When one of them is killed, Eddie realizes that saving himself means figuring out what happened all those years ago. But digging into the past proves more dangerous than he could have known. Because in this town, everyone has secrets, no one is innocent, and some will do anything to bury the truth.

Praise for The Chalk Man

"Wonderfully creepy--like a cold blade on the back of your neck."--Lee Child

"An assured debut that alternates between 1986 and 2016 with unpredictable twists. The Chalk Man fits well with other stories about troubled childhoods such as Stephen King's novella Stand by Me. . . . Tudor never misses a beat in showing each character as both a child and an adult while also exploring the foreboding environs of a small town."--Associated Press

"Utterly hypnotic. The Chalk Man is a dream novel, a book of nightmares: haunted and haunting, shot through with shadow and light--a story to quicken the pulse and freeze the blood. A dark star is born."--A.J. Finn, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Woman in the Window

"If you can't get enough of psychological thrillers with sharp twists and turns, you need to read The Chalk Man"--Hello Giggles

"I haven't had a sleepless night due to a book for a long time. The Chalk Man changed that."--Fiona Barton, New York Times bestselling author of The Widow

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Review

"Readers will undoubtedly be reminded of the kids of Stand by Me and even IT. . . . [The] first-person narration alternates between past and present, taking full advantage of chapter-ending cliffhangers. A swift, cleverly plotted debut novel that ably captures the insular, slightly sinister feel of a small village. Children of the 1980s will enjoy the nostalgia."--Kirkus Reviews

"CJ Tudor has written an utterly original novel--a thriller in which the suspense comes not simply from what happens, but from that dark place within the human mind from which all the greatest mysteries and terrors emerge. This one will hold you in its grip to the last page."--Joyce Maynard, New York Times bestselling author of Under the Influence andTo Die For

"What a great book. A twisty thriller and downright creepy ending. Five stars."--Sarah Pinborough, New York Times bestselling author of Behind Her Eyes

"Imaginative, with an intriguing premise that straddles two fascinating worlds. It's a frenetic ride that's deep and alluring, oozing with suspense. A rollicking good time."--Steve Berry, New York Times bestselling author of The 14th Colony

"C.J. Tudor knows the twelve-year-old who still lives in all of us, that kid who chills himself to the bone with an intuition of what lurks in the woods, or in his own closet, and The Chalk Man walks the haunted bridge between then and now--between sheer childhood terrors and a true crime so grisly and personal it's cold hand never leaves the back of your neck. Suburban adolescents on bikes, squeamish love, nascent sexuality meets adult-world obsession and lust and violence . . . and through it all runs an affecting story of friendship, loss, and the inescapable frailties of mind and body." --Tim Johnston, New York Times Bestselling author of Descent

"A cleverly constructed, artfully told tale of secrets, lies, and warped passions--featuring a troubled protagonist, a terrible murder that wasn't what it seemed to be, and a raging monster at the heart of it all."--John Verdon, internationally bestselling author of Think of a Number and the Nero Award-winning Peter Pan Must Die

"C.J. Tudor's The Chalk Man is a stunning debut, a riveting thriller about the powerful grip of the past and the unbreakable bonds of childhood friendship. The ending of this smasher will completely throw you for a loop. Don't miss a word of it!"--David Bell, bestselling author of Bring Her Home and Somebody I Used to Know

"The Chalk Man is an intricate and surprising book that will reward the reader who approaches it with the attention it deserves."--Thomas Perry, New York Times bestselling author of The Old Man

"Kept me up until five in the morning. Wonderfully written. I loved it!"--Kimberley Chambers, bestselling author of Backstabber and The Wronged

"It's been a while since I've read such an impressive debut. The pace was perfectly judged, the characters superbly drawn and there's a creeping sense of unease that starts with the prologue and grows throughout the book. And then that ending! It feels so fresh and deserves to be a huge success."--James Oswald, bestselling author of the Inspector McLean series

"What an amazing debut! Such an ingenious, original idea. I was engrossed from the very first page. I loved how the 1986 and present day storylines weaved so skillfully together to create that unforgettable and unexpected ending. Compelling, taut and so very, very chilling. This book will haunt you!"--Claire Douglas, bestselling author of Last Seen Alive

About the Author

C. J. Tudor is the author of The Hiding Place and The Chalk Man, which won the International Thriller Writers Award for Best First Novel and the Strand Magazine Award for Best Debut Novel. Over the years she has worked as a copywriter, television presenter, voice-over artist, and dog walker. She is now thrilled to be able to write full-time, and doesn't miss chasing wet dogs through muddy fields all that much. She lives in England with her partner and daughter.

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I finished this very good book in a couple of days...and as always, for me, that’s always the sign that I’ve enjoyed it.Only a couple of things prevented it from becoming a 5 star read.The characters were well developed and the storyline was good and creepy. The concept of unnerving chalkmen messages was a good one. The plot was tense and tightly woven, although got a little confusing at times and I had to go back over a few parts and re-read.A couple of drawbacks were that I’m not a fan of the supernatural scenario. I don’t much care for dreams coming to life, where things become a bit too unrealistic and zombie/ghost-like. Supernatural themes always make me lose a bit of interest. Fortunately there wasn’t TOO much of this.Also, even though the ending was good...it got a bit messy with a few too many unlikely events happening...almost like the author tried to cram too many “oh my god!”moments into it in a rush.However, all in all , mostly it was a well put together story.

I read this as a result of a recommendation from Dervla McTiernan, author of "The Ruin", and it didn't disappoint.

This is a murder story spanning decades that holds up a brutal mirror to an English town (Salisbury?) and some of its inhabitants. It exposes the neuroses of children and the adults they become, and shows us a horrifying picture of what might be happening right next door...

Sadly, like most contemporary thriller writers Ms Tudor concocts a fast paced interesting tale only to be let down by a very poor almost amateurish solution. I won't give the ending away . However, I will say any lover of telly, movie or literary thrillers will be outraged at the Dr. Who like ending the author mocks during the book. A very enjoyable guilty pleasure but not in the class of crime masters like: Rankin or Reginald Hill.

I just loved this book. A plot that kept me so interested I found it hard to put down. Well developed and thought out characters - after a long wait I’ve finally found my next favourite author. Can’t wait to read more.

Top international reviews

Bunnyroo

3.0 out of 5 starsWhen in England....

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 27 August 2018

Verified Purchase

Story good and would have been great but what spoiled it for me (I became so cross I couldn't concentrate on the story in the same way - this totally ruined my enjoyment), was the author's insistence on the gang of 1980's kids speaking American English! No 80's kids would use the word 'pants' for trousers, say "I guess" over and over again - it would have been, "I s'pose", and other, equally annoying Americanisms. Adults in the story too, the way they structured a sentence - it just doesn't happen, bar 'metrosexual'-types who believe they are 'transatlantic' these days. Shocked that Penguin didn't pick up on it and amend it, too! Please, all authors - if the characters in your stories are English let them speak English! Not being pedantic here, this truly spoils a good story for me. It just isn't true to life.

As the less positive reviews have already pointed out, the similarities to Stephen King, and particularly 'IT' are very strong, to the point for me that I started ticking them off as i read, which distracted from the narrative. The novel started positively for me, but as it continued it became contrived: secrets that hadn't been revealed were suddenly blurted out to answer previous cliff hangers/ red herrings and/ or to advance to plot conveniently. Ultimately, the chalk motive is not particularly relevant, and the ending is quite obvious and feels rushed. I really wanted to like this book, to the point where having bought in hardback and forgetting to take it on holiday I downloaded the kindle version, but after a promising start I found the story disappointing.

‘The Chalk Man’ gets you on your toes from the prologue. It starts with a chopped up body found in the woods. The way author describes the sounds and smells makes you think that you yourself can sense everything. However, you can’t shake off the feeling that you’ve read something similar. For a good half of the book I thought I was reading a shorter, less informative Stephen Kings’ book ‘It’.

There’s a group of children consisting of four boys and a girl. At one point of the story we have a rock fight between protagonists and antagonists. Chasing protagonists around with the urge to kill them. Similar playing ground area. More importantly the group of children have a person that loves joking around and impersonating people. And exactly the same time lapse of jumping between past and present. Now I have really enjoyed ‘It’ and couldn’t put it down. ‘The Chalk Man’ had me a little bit disappointed. I was expecting a gripping horror/thriller, but quite frankly, only got an interesting detective type book.

The book has a potential of being a very creepy, chilling story. Stick men in perspective are already quite unsettling – no face or facial expression, very basic. You might start questioning why these chalk men appear and who is behind their existence? It makes you feel like there is this big boogie man waiting for you in a dark corner, ready to consume the entirety of you. The book has some really interesting twists that might make you gasp and say ‘wow, I didn’t expect that’. It flows really consistently and therefore, is very easy to read. However ‘The Chalk Man’ left me wanting for a deeper more developed story. More background about chalk men.

Despite everything, I would say it is a very enjoyable read if you’ve never read ‘IT’ by Stephen King. The book is a nice introduction to a thriller type story, and does have well developed twists.

I don't know which Steven King gave this his appraisal, but it's can't be the Horror Writer. I struggled to the end in the hope that something exciting would happen. I was glad when I'd finished it and thought the whole story was a waste of time.

Now, The Chalk Man is a book that everyone is going to be talking about in the coming months. It is going to be one of the biggest book launches of 2018. This was an ingenious debut novel about a childhood game that goes horribly wrong. Even as I read the title of the book and when I saw the cover, which is so eye catching, I could hear creepy music playing in my head, I knew that this was a book I was desperate to read and CJ Tudor’s writing definitely lived up to my expectations.

The book is told over two different time periods, in the 1980s and in the present day. In the 1980s Ed is twelve-years-old and hangs out with his group of mates: Hoppo, Mickey, Fat Gav and Nicky. But not everything is plain sailing for them and on the day of the terrible accident at the fair, when a young girl known to Ed as Waltzer girl has a horrific accident on a Waltzer cart and is rushed to hospital, things really do begin to take a dark turn for the group and they are never quite the same again. One summer, they use chalk men as secrets codes, as a way of messaging each other, but one day the chalk men leads them to a dead body and a horrific crime scene. In 2016, Ed is in his forties and lives alone with his lodger, a girl in her twenties called Chloe. It is in the present day that the truth about what really happened when they were kids begins to unravel. I don’t want to say too much more about the plot because I don’t want to spoil it for readers but it has to be a contender for one of my top reads of this year. C. J. Tudor delivers a stomach flipping twist at the end of this book which I did not see coming.

I really liked the characters in this book and C.J. Tudor made them all feel real. For me, a book has to have great and compelling characters to pull you into the story and this book certainly does. Once I finished the book I really wanted to know what happened to them after the final chapter and I’m still thinking about them all months after I read it.

The author also explores some interesting themes in this book, some of them are quite dark and there are some scenes in the book which are a little gory. C. J. Tudor writes these scenes really well and she really makes you feel for her characters as they find themselves in new predicaments.

Once you read the prologue in this book, you won’t be able to stop reading, I can envisage many people picking this book up in a bookshop and heading straight to the counter with it.

The Chalk Man unfolds in two different timelines. Almost with mathematical precision 2016 (the present) alternates with 1986 (the past). Ed/Eddie tells us all in his good time. We find out about a body in the woods, media hype about it, memories and hidden facts. What happened? Who has done it? What was the motive? Yes, the normal things in a murder mystery. The police is of no use here in the present, and the police seems to have not been much use in the past either. Ed needs to solve/clear it up – with a little bit of help.

I bought this book with high expectations. The cover is actually good. It is even good when you get to hold it and can fondle the raised letters. The very full parade of chalk men all over the edges did ring a few warning bells. Though, believe or not, they did look good when I had read about 50 pages. But after that they became a bit gaudy. More warning bells might have been heralded by the many recommendations on the book itself. There was even a second cover so that the reader could convince her/himself that she/he had chosen well. Yes, over 20 stating The Chalk man is a compulsive read, gripping, completely engrossing, must read for horror-fans, utterly hypnotic… On Amazon I had already been led to think that I was into my most chilling read of this year.

So – I started with interest. I got to know the 12-year-old son Eddie and the 42-year-old teacher Ed. I got to know his family, his friends and his nearly-coastal small market town in southern England. I got to attend a pub, have a drink with him, go to a birthday party and even follow him to school on his summer vacation. With interest I savoured the scenes around the town thirty years apart. Indeed I was happily into the book.

But then it started irritating me. In fact I will now quote C. J. Tudor and maybe you will understand what I mean. This is how Ed puts it (p.289):

” When I was nine or ten, I was a big fan of Doctor Who. By the time I was twelve, it had gone really lame and crap. In fact, in my earnest twelve-year-old opinion, it all started to go downhill when Peter Davison regenerated into Colin Baker, who was never as cool, with his stupid multicoloured jacket and spotty cravat.

Anyway, up until then I had loved every episode, especially the ones with Daleks and the ones where they let the ending hang. A ‘cliffhanger’, it was called.

The thing was, the ‘cliffhanger’ was always better than the solution you waited eagerly for…”

I bought this book because it was billed as a Sunday Times Bestseller and lots of people were raving about it. In fact, every book site I visited it was billed as this years must read so, although I don’t normally let myself be governed by that sort of thing when choosing a book, I decided to give it a go. I notice that lots of people are saying that it’s not as good as the ratings and some people are saying it wasn’t all that good at all. I will say right now – ignore those reviews – I found it a great read. It held my attention from the start. I agree that at first, the chopping and changing from 1985 to 2016 in the narrative was a little confusing – especially if you didn’t take much notice of the chapter headings – but once I got the hang of it I was able to readily identify which year the story was in and started to get embroiled by the story.

The book starts off quite gently and you start to wonder why it has been classed as a thriller, however the style of writing with the continual hints as to what may be to come keeps the interest going and gradually as events unfold you start to see that this is definitely going to keep you on your toes. I like a book that keeps me guessing and often find myself trying to work out the answers as I drift off to sleep – sadly I never manage to solve the mysteries, which is probably just as well, best to leave that to the author.

There are definitely sections of the book that are quite eerie and, as many people have mentioned, it is comparable to Stephen King, but I am not a huge reader of his so I found this quite unique in comparison to other thrillers that I have read. The twists and turns that the story takes as we move from the young Eddie to the older Ed help to enhance the intrigue and as the truth started to come to light I realised that I was nowhere near guessing who the murderers were – yes there was more than one as there was more than one death in the story. The final ending to the book was a twist itself which I thought finished the whole thing nicely. Also there was a preview of the next novel which sounds just as intriguing and I will certainly keep my eyes open for that one.

I bought this book as it was recommended to me as a solid modern horror. Some reviews compared it to the works of Stephen King, particularly his masterpiece "IT". The book gets under way in a fantastically ghoulish manner and we are treated to a very grisly description of a dismembered body being discovered in a spooky forest area. This set an excellent ambience for the rest of the story to build upon. Unfortunately the story very quickly unfurls into a fairly standard murder mystery in a sleepy semi rural English village and quickly starts to feel like an extended episode of 'midsomer murders'. All the usual tropes are present, the angsty teens, the village bully and the naughty vicar. The story is told with style and the author certainly has a great deal of talent, however many of the events that transpire within the book are fairly trivial and failed to elicit any degree of emotional investment from me. As a caveat, my judgement is no doubt clouded as I went in expecting a full blown horror tale (on the basis of reviews and recommendations) and was treated instead to a murder mystery that one could easily imagine as a three part series on ITV aimed at pensioners in pastel knitwear grown tired of endless repeats of 'Murder She Wrote' and 'Poirot' on a Sunday evening.

I heard this book discussed in a book group so I thought I’d give it a read. I really wish I hadn’t bothered. The plot line is absolutely ridiculous and the writing style reads like that of 10 year old. Even some of the phrasing of the sentences is really child like. I’ve given up reading it half way through because I don’t want to waste any more of my time. Honestly, don’t waste your money.

This book was definitely not a horror and wasn't that thrilling either, If this book was 99p I still wouldn't buy it as a gift.

It started out well, a gruesome murder to solve with the prospect of something unearthly lurking in the shadows.It was supposed to be "the most chilling book you'll read this year" but it failed and I feel cheated.

I waited and waited for something to frighten me and it wasn't until I was 88% complete that I realised it wasn't going to happen.

A thoroughly disappointing read that was hard to follow and it just didn't flow properly, I wasn't the least bit interested in any of the characters but felt like I had to finish the book so it wasn't a total waste of money.

I found this to be an excellent read. The words "chilling" and "gripping" are so overused and people expect different things. It's very easy to become jaded when you read a lot of thrillers. Some have made comparisons to Stephen King's IT (which I have read). This is not a very helpful comparison and I don't consider it a horror book. I enjoyed the two period storyline. I thought it was very well written and flowed well. I found myself engaging with the characters and the plot unfolded nicely at quite a cracking pace. It kept me guessing until the end. I deliberately didn't try and "work out the book" in the first 20 pages- where's the fun in that? I gave up doing that as I found it spoiled what were actually very good books. Engrossing your self in the story and letting the author take you on a journey is far more enjoyable. I found this to be an excellent read and I look forward to reading more from this author

Well, I can certainly see why everyone was raving about this last year! It was amazing! I’m always worried when I read a book that has been gushed about, and you see on every turn, as sometimes they can be overhyped! This one wasn’t. It grips you right from the beginning and doesn’t let go.I wasn’t really sure what the book was going to be about as the premise doesn’t give anything away, but I wasn’t expecting it to be about young lads back in 1986 and then following them grown up in 2016. Along with very sinister and unfortunate events that unfold as the book goes along. I was surprised that even a way into the book, you still didn’t know what was going to happen and are still left wondering where the book was leading.The reveals are so subtle you end up reading them twice, as they are such big things but just thrown into the text so casually. They blow you away when done like this as it’s playing them down but at the same time hitting you with the exposition.It was so lovely to have the retro side of it, and to visit ‘Woollies’! It felt a little bit like ‘Stranger Things’ in that aspect just without the weird, otherworldly side of it.I loved the style of writing; it was very sophisticated and easy to read. I flew through this book as couldn’t wait to find out what it was all about.Overall, a fantastic five-star read and I am looking forward to reading C.J Tudor’s latest book ‘The Taking of Annie Thorne’.

may I suggest if you're drawn to this book by the hype (and it is no more than hype skip the first 39% if you have read IT. I have, three times, so the gang - all boys with one token girl (IT) play in the woods (IT) have to keep away from bullies (IT) get involved in a rock fight (IT) .bothered me considerably. After that the book began to get inside the characters, but not that well, you need to do some of the work yourself. Some clumsy phrasing may throw you out of the story until you realise what this - I want to say amateur - writer is saying. Mostly the book falls down because she has ignored, totally (as has her editor) the storyteller's maxim SHOW DON'T TELL. This is TELL, end to end. Sit down, I am going to tell you the story of when the chalk men appeared. It started like this... I I I I I I I could see a thousand places where it could have been so much better. I agree with the one star reviewers, this is not a horror book, it's an attempt at a rite of passage book with gory murders and people tearing around all over the place and getting absolutely nowhere. Body parts left under piles of leaves belongs in a Halloween book, not a rite of passage book.

Ms Tudor, in future pick your genre and stick with it. Then get yourself a good book on SHOW DON'T TELL - there are a few out there, and learn what I have been preaching to my writers for over twenty years. Then you might earn the accolades given to this book which really it doesn't deserve. It's not that good as a rite of passage, it's not a decent horror book, it's not a crime thriller and in future I will stick to my New Year's Resolution, ignore the accolades, read the 1 and 2 star reviews, they're usually the ones who nail the faults in a book, so I don't waste my hard earned money. Meantime I'm going back to 'old' writers who knew how to tell a story without it being all TELL.

This is another book that I managed to get my hands on thanks to a raffle win. The Chalk Man immediately grabbed my interest as I felt a Stephen King vibe to it. I had also seen this all over bookstagram, plus who could resist that cover.•I sat on my sofa, not moving for 5 hours until I finished this. I found myself not being able to put it down! Extremely well written, clever plot and an easy read. Small town murders with a few twists along the way. I loved that the chapters alternated between 1986 and 2016, with cliffhangers at the end of most. The 80's scenes were my favourite with minor elements of horror and the supernatural running throughout. The story is set in the UK which made a nice change to my usual reads.•Several interesting characters, especially the mismatch group of children and their parents. The relationships between them seemed familiar to other stories/movies set in that time period but also original. I didn’t really connect with any of the characters though or form any emotional attachments.•Unfortunately, the ending felt anticlimactic and slightly disappointing. Once again, I had guessed "whodunnit". With thrillers being my preferred genre, it is difficult to find an ending that shocks me. It wasn't as thrilling as I had hoped but it did have its moments. A fantastic debut from C.J. Tudor who is actually from my home town!•Another one with amazing reviews but I felt it did not live up to the hype. I did enjoy the book as a whole and if you like a good murder mystery with a punch of nostalgia then this will be right up your street.

I heard a lot of praise about this book, which is why I was really curious to read it. Unfortunately, now that I have finished it, I'm left a bit on the fence.

While The Chalk Man is not actually a supernatural story, it is very reminiscent of Stephen King's early work (particularly It and The Body). The novel tells Eddie's story over two time periods, flitting between the 1980s and present day in alternating chapters as it reveals the build up to him and his friends finding a body, and how the memories come back to him in present day after he receives a sinister letter.

For the most part, it's compelling. I was particularly hooked on the chapters set in Eddie's past, as the mystery gradually built and the stick figures began to become darker and darker. The story contains a number of bleak themes, including rape, child abuse and paedophilia, which slowly transform the way that you view the quaint, English village in which it is set. Eddie's narrative is bleak, yet sometimes darkly humorous, and does a great job of capturing the voice of a twelve year old boy.

Yet, the story has its problems. Without spoiling too much for you, The Chalk Man is not a story to read if you like everything to be clean and tied up at the end of a mystery. There are a lot of loose ends hanging at the end of this book and some logical leaps that the reader has to take, up to and including who "The Chalk Man" truly was. I also felt that the twist was a bit too sign-posted early on. Eddie is flat out told who the killer is about half-way through the book, yet doesn't join the dots until the final few chapters.

Yet, it is the characters in this novel that truly shine. I was really impressed by the way that Tudor showed what life was like living in a country village - the close knit community, the hidden secrets, the social divides - as it felt true to life. All of the characters in this novel were wonderfully fleshed out, and showed many hidden depths as Eddie managed to root out their true stories in the course of his "investigation".

Anyway, that about covers it. I enjoyed the book while reading it, but was left unsatisfied by the ending. Still, I do like Tudor's writing style and will certainly pick up more of her books in the future.